Rural turnout plummets in 2012

11/30/12 7:13 AM EST

Voter turnout declined across the nation in 2012 compared with 2008, but it plummeted in rural America.

According to an analysis by the Daily Yonder, which covers rural issues, rural presidential turnout dropped by twice the national average this year, sinking from 67.2 percent in 2008 to 54.9 percent.

Much of the erosion came from Democratic voters.

“Neither of the candidates inspired rural voters to go vote,” James Gimpel, a University of Maryland political scientist, told the Daily Yonder, “although there was even less enthusiasm for Obama than there was for Romney.”

Romney did, however, manage to win the rural vote by a higher percentage than John McCain. In 2008, McCain won 53.3 percent to Barack Obama’s 45.6 percent, but Romney won 58.9 percent among rural voters. That figure tracked almost exactly with George W. Bush’s rural performance in 2004.